


The Sound of Music

by melodramatic



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Disability via Accident, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, High School, M/M, Stage plays, The Sound of Music - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 07:37:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10986399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melodramatic/pseuds/melodramatic
Summary: Somewhere between the ages of 16 and 17, Tyler got into an accident.





	The Sound of Music

When he was six, he gathered his family around the sofa in the living room, and stood before all of them with a fake microphone and sang his heart out to any song that played.

His mother cheered him along excitedly, his father was merely amused, and his siblings were too young to have an opinion. 

He thought he was great.

So when he was twelve, and the morning announcements stated auditions for a summer musical were being held in the auditorium that afternoon, he was among the first to arrive.

And he stood in front of two teachers and one teacher's assistant with a puffed out chest and rosy cheeks. They applauded at the end, and let him know they'd list who made it in the office a week from then.

He got the part. Not the main part, but a part. He was to take part in each of the musical numbers, and oh, he was so excited. He was going to wow the crowd with how well he could sing. He spent the rest of the day carefully listening to the soundtrack of the play that he found on YouTube, and reading the lines over and over again.

He heard his voice in his own ears, and it didn't sound right. But when he practiced the lines for his mother, she told him he sounded perfect.

So he sighed and tried again, by himself. Maybe he did sound pretty good. 

For the first official practice, Tyler practiced the lines over and over in his head - the ones he had already memorized, anyway.

"Okay, who's playing Maria, raise your hand," The drama teacher called from where she was watching in the stands. A thin, blonde girl that was sat in the first row raised her hand. 

"Get on stage, Jenna, I want to hear you sing the bridge in the first song," She commanded. 

Jenna got on stage and sang the bridge, then the entire song. 

"Now I need her two backups on stage, as well. All of you sing together," She said, as Tyler and James got on stage as well, on either side of Jenna.

They began singing the first part, with the teacher singling them out at different times in the song. 

Overall, it was a bit stressful - everyone was still figuring out where theh belonged, but Tyler still couldn't wait for the next practice.

"Pst," He heard behind his shoulder as he sat in math class, only paying half-attention.

He looked over his shoulder at a kid with a lip ring, "You were really good at the play auditions."

Tyler turned around fully, but still kept his voice low, "You were there? Those are closed practices."

"I help with the lighting. So, yeah, I was there."

"Oh. Did you have to audition for that part?" Tyler asked.

The kid shook his head, "No, I just-"

"Tyler, Josh. Is there something you'd like to share with the class?" The teacher called from where he stood in the front.

"No, sir," Tyler said, whipping around to sit forward in his chair.

The teacher hummed and gave a dissaproving look to the both of them, and then continued with the lesson. 

Tyler saw Josh at the next practice, and gave him a friendly nod. They began talking to each other during the short breaks that the teacher allowed them to take, and Tyler found out that Josh has stage fright, but loves music, which is why he wanted to stay in the background of the play.

"Why are you afraid of the crowds?" Tyler asked.

He shrugged, "I dunno. They just scare me."

Tyler nodded and took a sip of water, "You like listening to music?"

Josh's eyes widened and he nodded enthusiastically, "I love listening to music! You should come over sometime, and I'll show you my favorite band. I bet you could sing some of their songs. You're a really good singer."

"Thanks," He chuckled, "Maybe. Sometimes it's better just to listen to the music instead of singing it, y'know?"

"Yeah, you're right. You're pretty smart," Josh said.

"I know," Tyler replied, his smug expression turning to the left where everyone was beginning to go back on stage. He did not notice Josh still staring at him in awe.

And so Tyler went over to Josh's house that weekend. And the next. And the next. 

There almost wasn't a moment when the two weren't either texting, on the phone with each other, or side-by-side. They had become inseperable.

Even when the play was over, and the entire cast came out to take a bow, Tyler ran off stage and enveloped Josh in a hug.

"We did it! Did you hear how good I was?" He exclaimed.

Josh laughed and nodded, "I did! That was awesome, dude!"

But their friendship did not end there. 

As the years went on, Tyler's self-esteem and confidence dwindled, no longer being the self-assured twelve-year-old that he was when he met Josh.

Instead, he was a rather self-depricating fifteen-year-old that only found comfort late at night when he'd sneak into Josh's room through his window and listen to music with him. 

And when they didn't play music, they watched _The Sound of Music_ at a low volume. It had become sort of a tradition after participating in the play together - a tradition they both loved.

But on this night, each of them took one earbud, and they laid side-by-side, sometimes not even saying one word.

Tyler thought him and Josh had a very special friendship. 

"Ty?" Josh asked one night as they laid together. Tyler was curled into Josh's side, as the boy stroked his hand through his hair, and they were very close physically - it had begun to prove difficult to Josh. It did not help that all the music that flowed between their earbuds was a collection of love songs.

"Hm?" 

"You know how - like..."

Tyler looked up. His heart skipped a beat when he realized how close their faces were. He did not say anything.

"Like..."

Silence.

"Like what?" Tyler asked.

Josh swallowed thickly and shook his head, "Nothing. Nevermind."

Tyler stared at him for a long moment before leaning forward and planting a feather-light kiss on his forehead. He had always been the more decisive one.

Josh smiled softly when he pulled back, and they continued listening to music in silence.

It was on Tyler's sixteenth birthday that him and Josh redifined the word "friendship."

Josh had saved up from his after-school job to get Tyler a vintage LP player, and Tyler couldn't have been more grateful. He jumped up and down with joy and hugged Josh tightly, having to stop himself from planting a kiss on his lips.

"What should we play first?" Tyler asked as he lugged a box of LP's into his room from his attic. 

"Should we really play anything right now? I don't want to wake anyone up," Josh said.

Tyler shook his head, "Don't worry about them. Right now is just about me and you."

And Josh really couldn't argue with the flutter in his heart. So they looked through the stack of music, and settled on the album _Abbey Road_ , by The Beatles. 

For the first song, they sat alongside each other, listening to the song. And then the next one came on. It started off rather slowly.

Tyler turned to Josh, "Care to dance?"

"Really?" He asked, skeptical.

Tyler chuckled and got up, taking Josh's hand, "Yes, really."

Tyler put his hands on Josh's waist, and let the other boy wrap his arms around Tyler's neck. They swayed softly with the song, staring into each other's eyes with a sweet sense of longing. 

_Something in the way she moves._

Tyler moved his hands to the small of Josh's back, inadvertently pulling him closer. 

_Somewhere in her smile, she knows, that I don't need no other lover._

They continued swaying in silence, and Tyler was sure that the tingling he felt in his heart, and the pleasant numbness in his brain, was what the movies, the books, and the songs were written about. This was love. This was the love he had been hearing about all along. He was sure, this was it.

_Don't wanna leave her now, don't wanna leave her now._

"I love you," Tyler whispered so quietly, he almost wasn't even sure if Josh had heard it. But he did.

"I love you, too," Josh whispered back.

Tyler leaned forward and pecked Josh on the cheek.

Josh suddenly placed a hand on the back of Tyler's head, keeping him close. He didn't want to lose this moment. He really, really, didn't want to lose this moment. With a love song on the record player and a warmness in the air, he wasn't sure if he'd get a chance like this again.

"Tyler?"

"I know."

Tyler leaned forward and captured Josh's lips with his. He relaxed into the kiss almost immediately - it was a first time for the both of them, but it was already so natural. The song ended, and a song that was not as slow and sensual came on, the both of them smiling into the kiss at how slow dancing was no longer fitting. 

The rest of the night was spent with Tyler pressing Josh down against his mattress and kissing him deeply. They didn't actually _do_ anything, but the both of them were still rendered speechless and a little bit dizzy by the time they managed to seperate.

They shared one more kiss before they fell asleep together. 

Which quickly became a routine. 

Studying sessions turned into makeout sessions, with neither of them willing to stop it. 

It was something magical.

Things changed when Tyler got his liscence. He was excited, almost seventeen, and ready to take Josh everywhere.

 _Josh (10:25): You on your way over?_ He texted Tyler one day, as he finally had the house to himself and was excited to have Tyler over with him.

_Tyler (10:26): Yup. Getting into the car right now. Be there in 10 mins_

_Josh (10:26): K. I'll be waiting ;)_

And he did wait. Longer than ten minutes, actually. He waited fifteen minutes, then twenty, and then thirty.

_Josh (10:42): Are you lost? You do know how to get here, right? We've only known each other for, like, 5 years now lol_

No response. Josh furrowed his eyebrows and typed out another message five minutes later.

_Josh (10:47): Ty, where are you?_

Again, nothing. Now he was beginning to worry.

_Josh (10:49): Tylerrrr, please respondddd_

_Josh (10:50): Do you have your phone on silent again?_

_Josh (10:51): Okay, I'm serious now. You better respond._

He huffed out a sigh and called Tyler's phone, which went straight to voicemail. A weird, worried pulse flooded his veins as multiple worse-case-scenario situations flooded his brain. He called again, and again, and again, but it went straight to voicemail each time. 

_Josh (11:03): Tyler, what's going on?_

Ten minutes after he sent the text, his phone began ringing. His heart was relieved for only a second, before he realized that it wasn't Tyler, but Tyler's mother. 

His heart only pounded faster as he answered the call.

"Hello?" His voice cracked, but he didn't care.

"Josh, it's Kelly - where are you?" She asked.

He looked around his room and vaguely wondered if the question was sarcastic.

"I'm just here, in my house. I was waiting for Tyler to come over. Where's is he - where's Tyler?"

"Oh," She sighed, "Tyler was in an accident, the hospital just called, I'm on my way there right now."

Josh swore he felt the world stop spinning, "An accident?! Wait, what-"

"Josh, calm down, it's probably nothing serious," They both knew she was lying, "Just meet me at the hospital, okay?"

"Okay," He hung up without another word and ran out of his door, not even bothering to lock it before he got into his car and sped down the freeway. The back of his mind told him to be careful, but the front of his mind did not care at the moment.

He arrived at the hospital, and saw Tyler's mother and father sitting down in the emergency room and speaking quietly to each other. Tyler's father wiped tears from his mother's face. 

Josh's heart was in his throat by the time he approached them. 

"What happened?" He asked in a wavering voice.

Kelly couldn't talk, so Chris looked Josh in the eyes, "Tyler is going to be okay, don't worry. He just... they're operating on him right now."

"What are the operating on him for?" Josh asked.

Chris shrugged as Kelly kept her gaze trained on the floor.

They found out eventually. Almost four hours had passed by before the three of them were allowed to see Tyler. 

He was laying down in a hospital bed, wearing a drab down and not even attempting to stop the silent tears from rolling down his face. There was a thick, white bandage wrapped around the top of his head, covering his ears.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Josh wondered if Tyler's hair had always been cut in awkward places around his head, but he knew it wasn't. He felt a deep weight in his gut as he approached the boy who looked so much smaller than he actually was.

Kelly and Chris spoke with the doctor, but all of that was static as Tyler raised himself to embrace Josh in a tight hug, his chest heaving and shoulders shaking as tears streamed down his face.

Josh cried too - he didn't know what he was crying for yet, but he cried, too. 

There was nothing but silence in the room. Well, if there was talking, Josh wasn't aware of it, and he didn't know if Tyler was, either. How could he with those thick bandages blocking sound from getting to his ears?

Josh pulled back to look at Tyler's swollen eyes and blotchy face, planting a kiss right on his forehead.

"I'm so sorry," He whispered. Tyler looked at his lips and then began shaking his head - for what, Josh was unaware of.

"He can't hear you, Josh," Someone said from behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder. 

He wiped the tears from his eyes and stood up, looking at Chris. Everyone in the room except for the doctor was shedding a tear, but Josh's brain was too scattered to regret not listening to the conversation they had with the doctor.

"What do you mean he can't hear me?" He asked. Kelly and Chris avoided eye-contact with him, so he turned to the doctor.

"He can't hear me because of the bandages, right?" He asked.

Before the doctor could open her mouth to explain, Josh's attention turned back to the small boy sobbing into his hospital bed sheets.

The words that the doctor was speaking went in one ear, and right out the other. All he knew was Tyler at the moment. 

His heart, his veins, his brain bled for Tyler. He felt like he was going to explode at any moment.

But, oh, how he wished he would have paid attention to the conversation.

Tyler eventually went back to his home, where he was no longer his adventurous self. He was a completely changed person, and no one could blame him.

Despite this, Josh sat by his side every moment he could, trying to help him learn sign language, when he got back from his new classes for the deaf/hard of hearing. He was reluctant to attend the classes at first, but had actually began to enjoy them after a few weeks. 

No matter how often he attended the classes, though, he constantly messed with the hearing aids that now sat in his ears, claiming they were uncomfortable.

"Stop messing with them, love," Josh said, reaching up to place a gentle hand on Tyler's wrist - Tyler couldn't hear him, but Josh often found himself still speaking as if he could. Although it had been almost half a year at this point, it was still a habit he needed to get rid of.

Tyler frowned.

 _I hate these_ , He signed.

 _I know_ , Josh signed back, _I'm sorry_.

Tyler took a deep breath, and rested his head against Josh's shoulder, and Josh wrapped his arms around the boy, wanting to comfort him any way he could. They both stared ahead at the LP player that they used to listen to so often.

Josh had asked Tyler if he wanted to get rid of it, but he shook his head - although he couldn't listen to it anymore, he liked the reminder.

But it had not always been that way. 

The first few nights were the hardest. Every morning, Tyler awoke, half-expecting his hearing to come just as suddenly as it had left, and every morning that it didn't, he sunk further and further into a deep pit of depression.

Josh kissed him sweetly and softly, but in the dark of the night, Tyler confessed in a dry, and even tone, that he wanted to die. He couldn't hear music, he couldn't listen to the beautiful songs from _The Sound of Music_ , and he couldn't hear Josh's comforting words.

Josh tried to help - he did what he could. He reassured Tyler that he still loved him, he promised he wasn't going anywhere, and when Tyler eventually found his smile again, three months after The Accident, and Josh's heart leaped out of his chest when he saw it again.

He gave Tyler a big, obnoxious kiss on his cheek in the middle of the grocery store, and Tyler jokingly rolled his eyes. 

And although their relationship was strained for the first few days after The Accident - it worked out. Josh knew they'd work it out. They were far too in love for it to not work out.

It was a Friday night, and Tyler and Josh shared a blanket together, watching _The Sound of Music_ with the subtitles on. 

Tyler sang softly along with the songs, he still knew by heart. 

Josh couldn't help but turn to the side and marvel at how he could still stay relatively on-tune, despite not being able to hear his own voice. He tapped on Tyler's shoulder, to get his attention.

 _You still sing like an angel_ , Josh signed.

Tyler smiled and signed _Thank you_ , before leaning in and kissing him on the lips softly.

"I love you," He whispered.

"I love you, too," Josh whispered back.

Tyler smiled and leaned his head on Josh's shoulder, turning back to the TV. 

And with a deep sigh, the movie continued: silent, but beautiful.

Much like Tyler.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading. Not sure if I did well or not on this one, so please leave a comment, if you feel so inclined :)
> 
> Stay alive, friends


End file.
